Student feels 'duped' by Govt

University of Otago postgraduate student Veronica
Harwood-Stevenson (28) says it is unfair her student
allowance was taken away partway through her diploma. Photo
by Craig Baxter.

A University of Otago student says she feels ''duped''
after a Government change meant her student allowance was taken
away halfway through her postgraduate study.

Veronica Harwood-Stevenson (28), who is taking the two-year
postgraduate diploma in natural history, film-making and
communication, said she would probably have chosen to stay in
her job in the film industry in Wellington if she had known
her allowance would be stopped this year.

This comes as changes to student allowance eligibility
announced by the Government in last year's Budget come into
force this year. The changes mean postgraduate students can
no longer receive the allowance and there is no option to
apply for exemptions allowing them to receive it beyond the
200-week cut-off rule.

Ms Harwood-Stevenson felt people such as her who signed up
for study before the changes were made should still be able
to get the allowance.

''I made the decision to return to study based on the status
quo at the time and then it was changed from under my feet.''

The change left her feeling ''duped'' by the Government and
meant she would be left with an extra $10,000 on her student
loan.

She also faced having to get by on $175 a week instead of the
$244 she was getting last year.

''That might not seem like a lot to ... [Tertiary Education
Minister Steven Joyce]; he would probably drop that on a
bottle of wine, but that is the majority of someone's rent.''

As a result, she had given up on a plan to use her savings to
buy a house and was instead living with her mother. Even on
$244 a week, she had been forced to put off doctor visits so
she could buy course materials.

Ms Harwood-Stevenson said that to be fair, Mr Joyce should
change his mind and give back the allowance to people partway
through postgraduate study.

Labour tertiary education spokesman Grant Robertson also
called on Mr Joyce to ''do the right thing'' for people in Ms
Harwood-Stevenson's situation.

''If Steven Joyce is determined to go ahead with [allowance
changes] ... he needs to urgently act to allow those students
partway through their postgraduate study to get allowances.''

When asked if he would consider making the change, Mr Joyce
said postgraduate students earned more when they finished
studying and it was ''hardly fair'' to ask taxpayers to keep
''picking up ... the tab'' for their allowances.

''The Labour Party are starting 2013 where they left off in
2012 - trying to have their cake and eat it too. They pretend
they would be as fiscally responsible as the Government, but
then oppose every single spending change the Government
makes,'' Mr Joyce said.

Otago University Students' Association president Francisco
Hernandez called on the Government to reverse all the changes
it had made to student allowances.

''Student associations have told the Government the whole
time that situations like Veronica's would come up.

''Although students can access the living cost scheme, many
students are finding that they are unable to borrow the same
amount as they were receiving via the student allowance
scheme,'' he said.

Everyone is affected by the government spending cuts in some
way. This country has to live within its means and students
have to take a hit too. It's not the only industry getting
reduced funding - police have a freeze on funding, defence
staff have been laid off, the list goes on...

It's great if you are able to get through university by
working and saving instead of using loans and allowances.
Postgraduate study is, however, a full-time job. Many
students contribute unpaid or paid work to the university
whilst undertaking their Masters and PhD work. This can
involve teaching, tutoring, contributing to research,
publishing research, contributing to books, attending
conferences and so on. Being a postgraduate is not like
undergrad where you can attend a few hours of classes a week.
It is a full-time commitment to the academic community. On
top of that are the PG students with ongoing medical
conditions (like myself) or with children and families to
look after, volunteer work, school commitments etc.

Students are the only group in society expected to borrow
money for living costs. At a minimum, student allowances
should match the amount people receive on the unemployment
benefit where the government pays people to "look for work".
We are studying for work but we are expected to shut up and
put up?

Cut us some slack! We are working hard and looking forward to
getting back into the workforce to contribute to society. We
want something reinstated that countless others were entitled
to before us!

Having engaged in real work for a couple of years I decided
to give University a nudge (walked out with a double degree
three years later and a pretty decent grade average), and
almost immediately it became apparent that attendance at
University leaves a great deal of spare time for other
pursuits, so I decided to avoid the student allowance/loan
system completely and worked 20-30 hours a week instead.
Summers were spent working my butt off saving enough to pay
for the following year's fees (while friends chose instead to
utilise their student loan monies for European holidays,
which they are still paying off today).

What is it with society today that we see handouts from
others as our god-given right, we've all got choices in this
world, it's time people started fronting up and being
accountable for their own lives/actions.

The point is you do pay for my student loan even if you don't
have it. My brother is a lawyer and every time a client sits
in his chair, he makes sure that client pays all his costs
and one of those costs is his student loan. Teachers have got
pay rises based on the fact they have some of the highest
student loans due to their four year degrees (for secondary
teaching) and earn less than the average professional. How
you pay may have changed, but you're still paying and you're
actually paying a lot more!

There's three obvious answers to that:
The computer that Te Jackle used to make their comment, the
science that means it doesn't require a second house to
accomodate, and the internet which allows them to make their
views known.

Then there is the secondary education that Te Jackle has
apparently taken for granted. The list goes on from there...

If you have sufficient resouces why shouldn't you use them to
pay for your education. We are struggling to put our daughter
through university without allowances and she has worked 40
plus hours every week since November for the privilege of
getting a degree. This comes down to ethics.

I am in the same situation as Veronica, and I have been told
specifically by Studylink that I am still eligible because my
study was started before the change. The problem I am facing
is with the way the university processes enrolments. Note the
studylink website.

Last bullet point:

Situations where you can't get a Student Allowance

You can't get the Student Allowance if you're:

in prison

on a benefit

doing paid work as part of your course

have a Student Allowance debt that you are not actively
paying back.

receiving or your partner is receiving either New
Zealand Superannuation or Veterans Pension

studying a postgraduate course that starts on or
after 1 January 2013. [abridged]

This is more than just a little rich coming from Joyce, who
is of the age where you got paid to go to university. This is
nothing more than inter-generational theft, as is the whole
student loan scheme.